Over 20 New Acrobats Were Discovered in the 9901 Burial Pit of Qinshihuang Mausoleum

On June 09, 2012, the reporter was informed by the Terracotta Warriors Museum that after more than half a year of archaeological excavation,  more than 20 new pieces of terracotta figurines with different postures but severely damaged in the 9901 burial pit of the Tomb of the First Emperor of Qin were discovered.

Since its discovery, the second excavation of the Terracotta Army was carried out in 1986, and the third excavation has been conducted from 2009 to the present.

The researcher involved in the archaeological excavation said, “Since August last year, archaeologists have started the excavation of the 9901 acrobats Pit. After clearing one to two meters of fill and a huge layer of rammed earth, we excavated mainly the third over the hole. The newly discovered terracotta figurines were badly damaged and estimated to total more than 20 pieces. They would have been in two columns, north and south, facing each other. The northern one is fatter and the southern one is thinner. Together with the originally excavated terracotta figurines, the whole terracotta pit should have more than 30 pieces as of now.”

The reporter saw at the scene that many broken terracotta figurines were lying horizontally and vertically at the bottom of the pit, surrounded by the remains of burning soil and so on. The uniformed archaeologists were carefully cleaning up and protecting the fragments of the terracotta figurines. What is striking is that one headless terracotta figurine is very tall, measured by experts to be 2.2 meters in its headless state. Its feet also appear larger than other terracotta figurines, roughly 54 yards in size today.

Professor Zhao Huacheng of Beijing University said that the main excavation is the third cave of the acrobats’ pit currently. The terracotta figurines in the pit should be “actors” who performed entertainment such as juggling and illusions in the society at that time. In general, these terracotta figurines belonged to the Hundred Opera Figurines. Since there were “music and dance of a hundred plays” in ancient times, we are still expecting the “music and dance” of that time.

Xu Weihong of the Terracotta Warriors Museum, who is involved in the excavation of Pit 1, said that in addition to the acrobats’ pit, which is officially undergoing archaeological excavation, Pit 1 of the Terracotta Warriors Museum is also undergoing partial excavation. 102 terracotta figurines and some textiles, carriages and other relic remains have been found since 2009 to date. They provide precious archaeological data for deepening and enriching the knowledge and research on the terracotta warriors, etc.